House Republicans fail to censure impeachment leader Adam Schiff

The House of Representatives easily defeated a Republican measure to censure House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff for his “parody” reading of President Trump’s July phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a hearing last month.

Lawmakers voted along party lines 218-185 to postpone the resolution after heated debate over the impeachment inquiry into Trump, which Schiff is spearheading behind closed doors. However, 28 members, 12 Republicans and 16 Democrats, did not vote at all on the motion.

The proposal had 173 cosponsors and was introduced last month by Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona, who leads the House Freedom Caucus. It immediately received support from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise of Louisiana, and House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming.

The Democratic tabling, or suspension, of the Schiff censure measure was viewed by Republicans as an indication of the majority party’s broad support for the impeachment effort.

“Democrats don’t want to censure Adam Schiff. They think it’s perfectly acceptable, obviously, that he makes up fake transcript dialog between the president to the Ukrainian president. And, apparently, they think it’s just fine that he told falsehoods for two years that President Trump colluded with Russia when that turned out to be false,” Arizona Republican Rep. Debbie Lesko, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told the Washington Examiner.

“Chairman Schiff cannot be trusted to conduct a fair and open impeachment inquiry, because he cannot be trusted to tell the truth. He is only concerned with furthering his partisan anti-Trump agenda,” Scalise said in a statement.

“I applaud Rep. Andy Biggs’ efforts to hold Chairman Schiff accountable for his actions. Shame on Democrats who, once again, protected Chairman Schiff from any consequences.”

Virginia Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, a member of the House Oversight Committee, said that the censure resolution made no sense and it is the president who is the problem, not the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee.

“I think the absurdity of this motion was you want to try to discredit somebody who, in semi-mocking tones, tried to explain the meaning of the transcript and you, but you have you have no problem with the gentleman in the White House denigrating women, denigrating Mexicans, denigrating African Americans, denigrating Gold Star families,” Connolly told the Washington Examiner.

He continued, “I mean, you’ve got no problem with that. But you want to censure somebody for doing his job and simply trying to interpret what was in the transcript. Albeit in a way, with a little bit of sarcasm, but, I mean, I’m appalled, frankly, at that value system. I think it says volumes about them.”

Schiff, whose House Intelligence Committee is spearheading the impeachment inquiry, has been criticized by Republicans for a “parody” of Trump’s phone conversation with Zelensky, which he recited during testimony last month by acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire.

The phone call is the central focus of the impeachment inquiry against the president that the committees of jurisdiction are presently investigating.

The day before the House vote, Trump called for Schiff to be deposed, saying on Twitter, “This Scam going on right now by the Democrats against the Republican Party, and me, was all about a perfect phone call I had with the Ukrainian President. He’s already stated, NO PRESSURE! Where is the Whistleblower, or the 2nd Whistleblower, or the “informant?” All gone…..”

Trump added, ”….because their so-called story didn’t come even close to matching up with the exact transcript of the phone call. Was it a Corrupt Adam Schiff con? Why didn’t the IG see this? When do we depose Shifty Schiff to find out why he fraudulently made up my phone call and read this..”